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Merryn of Money: Gold bugs are digging for victory

This has nothing to do with sport and nothing to do with bikes. Instead it’s because Tokyoites know that one day the “big one”, a long-overdue once-every-100-years killer of an earthquake, is going to hit the city. And because they know that those who are wearing a helmet will have a better chance of surviving than those who do not.

This doesn’t mean that Tokyo residents don’t all feel very silly when they leap out of bed to put on their helmets whenever a tremor hits in the night, only to take them off again and get back into bed when a tremor turns out to be no more than that. Of course they do. But they also know that one day that sense of embarrassment will be worth it.